Senior Indian diplomat D. Bala Venkatesh Varma — a key member of the negotiating team that saw the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal through from the first agreement of July 2005 down to the Additional Protocol in 2010 — was given the first S.K. Singh award “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen India's position in the global nuclear order” by UPA chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi at a high-profile function here on Friday.
The award for excellence in the Indian Foreign Service is named after the former foreign secretary and Governor, Shailendra Kumar Singh, a diplomat widely respected within the IFS community for his acumen, professionalism and leadership. Mr. Varma was selected as the first recipient of the prestigious award by a top-drawer jury consisting of Vice President Hamid Ansari, National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon, Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai, Ms Gandhi and Congress M.P. Rahul Gandhi.
Mr. Varma, a 1988 batch officer of the foreign service, is an expert in nuclear matters and is currently posted as Joint Secretary (Disarmament and International Security Affairs) at the Ministry of External Affairs in Delhi.
Prior to this, he worked in India's Permanent Mission in Geneva and in the Prime Minister's Office. It was as a Director in the PMO that Mr. Varma was first associated with the 2005 nuclear agreement with the U.S. Later, during the tense and often bitter negotiations with the American side over the separation plan for India's nuclear facilities as well as the bilateral cooperation agreement (the ‘123 agreement'), his “timely and appropriate advice” to “principals at key junctures”— as the citation notes — helped secure a deal that was within the parameters Prime Minister Manmohan Singh promised parliament.
As the bilateral track turned multilateral with the engagement of both the IAEA and the Nuclear Suppliers Group in late 2007, the award citation read out by former Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao noted, Mr. Varma's “negotiating skills were applied in concluding the India-specific Safeguards Agreement with the IAEA. Following the adoption of the NSG's decision in September 2008, he was instrumental in ensuring that the text of an Additional Protocol was finalised to India's satisfaction.”
Ms. Gandhi handed the award over to Mr. Varma in the presence of Mr. Ansari and Ms. Manju S.K. Singh.
